writing process

I haven’t written about what my writing schedule consists of, so I thought I’d lay it out for anyone that is curious.

My average weekday consists of writing from 8-10am, a break for breakfast then editing until about 2pm or 5,000 word, whichever comes first.

My writing block is often broken up into smaller sessions. I’ll usually write for a thousand words and then take a “short” break that might include twenty guilt filled minutes of Facebook and then back to writing again for another thousand words. I’m not perfect about getting back to work in a timely manner, but it’s usually not too much of a problem because I like checking things off my to-do list.

Editing is a bit harder and I’m still developing my technique for getting the most out of my editing time. I can edit about 5,000 words of next text a day with a new manuscript. This pace changes on the second draft which is broken down into pages. I usually work on 20 pages a day since the amount of corrections are smaller. Then the last read through goes fast. I can do all this in about three weeks, but I’m moving to a schedule that allows me four weeks of editing per book.

Weekends are a bit different. I actually wake up at the same time on the weekends, I just don’t go through my morning routine until after my husband wakes up at 8 o’clock. So I’m up and with the coffee pot at 5:30 or 6am. This suits me because 1) I’m an early riser anyway, 2) I like writing in peace and quiet (sorry husband but you’re noisy). I don’t do any editing on the weekends unless I want to for sanity purposes.

So there you have it. Nothing terribly complex, but it’s working and is evolving. What does your writing day look like? I’m very interested to see how others tackle this, especially editing since it’s my least perfect scheduling issue right now.